Down to the Wire
by PagetPaulson
Summary: She had to keep them safe, but she was hurt and it was cold. What if no one found them by dawn?
1. Chapter 1

Running her hand over her daughter's soft head of hair the brunette woman kept up her pace, her running shoes stepping hard against the gravel that made up the mountain's path. She looked over the edge to see the sun shining high above the peak they were hiking up to. It was the most beautiful sight she'd ever seen.

Huffing at the thought, she smiled down to her little girl. Make that second most beautiful sight.

Emily had given birth to her baby Phoenix just over a year ago, and she had done her best to spend every moment with her. She still had her job, it was her favorite that she had ever had other than being a mother, but every time she was able to get a small amount of time off she would take Phoenix from daycare and bring her out to the park or bring her out to her favorite hiking spots.

Phoenix loved the outdoors. If she wasn't with her mother at home or out in the sun, the one year old girl barely spoke a word. Out in the fresh air and in her mother's arms, Phoenix blossomed.

"Look at that Hawk," she whispered, pointing up to the flying bird and trying to get her daughter to look up. Smiling, Emily watched as the animal circled the trees up to their right before swooping down. "Did you see that, Nikki?"

Looking back down to the one year old Emily watched as those big eyes looked out to the flowers they were passing, and the baby gave a grin. "Aren't those pretty?" Stepping to the side of the path, Emily knelt down and picked a violet from the ground. She handed it to the little girl in the carrier she strapped on, watching as Phoenix looked up to her mother. "A beautiful flower for my beautiful baby."

The one year old laughed heartily, her hands clutching the pretty new flower.

"You hungry, baby?"

Phoenix's eyes were glued to her flower, feeling her mother stand up and her body shift against Emily's chest. "No!"

Emily looked to the little girl with wide eyes. "No?"

The baby girl with dark brown eyes, hair and the most beautiful little dimples grinned back up to the laughing woman. "No!"

She pressed a kiss to her daughter's head and continued down the path, feeling her backpack shift as she walked. "Well ok then. Mommy will save it all for herself. I'll eat it without you later." The look of surprise on her daughter's face was enough to have the FBI agent in hysterics.

"Mama no!"

Emily laughed, her hand to the back of her daughter's carrier as she looked out to the water of the river that ran next to the mountain she was climbing. Her daughter had started speaking at eight months old, but even now most of her conversations with the FBI agent were words blabbered together in her own language she had come up with. Thankfully, spending so much time with the one year old, Emily had gotten the hand of their conversations.

She felt her foot slip slightly on a rock that she hadn't seen in her way, and her arms immediately wrapped around the carrier she wore to protect her daughter. Thankfully she was quickly able to steady herself and stand straight, her hand running over Phoenix's dark head of hair before they carried on.

It was a nice sunny September day, but because of the altitude they were climbing to Emily had dressed in her heaviest windbreaker and a beanie so her ears were covered, and her daughter was in her new fall coat with a baby scarf Garcia had gotten her three months before for her birthday. If Emily had planned everything correctly, they would be back down to the bottom of the mountain just after dinner time which was perfect.

There was a dinner planned at Rossi's for seven o'clock, everyone's relatives getting together for their last Saturday of the month meal.

"Mommy."

The whispered words from the little girl strapped to her chest had Emily's eyes drifting down to her. "Hi baby" she smiled, tickling Phoenix underneath her ear to get her to give her her favorite laugh.

Phoenix grabbed her mother by her cheeks and brought her face down, kissing her chin. "Mommy."

Emily took a long moment to share a smile with the little girl, feeling her small body so close to hers that their heartbeats started to synch. Dragging the pad of her index finger slowly down Phoenix's soft cheek and watching as the one year old smiled up to her like she saw the most magnificent thing in the world. Little did her baby girl know, Emily was looking at hers.

Once she was done for the moment staring up at the woman who had given her life, Phoenix's head bent, looking around her for the flower she had let go of to grab onto her mother's face.

"Did you lose your flower?"

Phoenix looked back up to her mother with a pout, clenching the air between her fingers trying to find her flower.

Emily nodded, letting her daughter take one of her fingers. "Ok, we'll find it." Walking up the path, the single mother did her best to look for a flower just like the one Phoenix had dropped to make sure her daughter was as happy as she could be. She could hear her daughter murmuring in her own little language into her jacket as others on the trail started heading back down to the bottom of the mountain, paying no mind to the mother and daughter scowering the edges for flowers.

"You have a beautiful baby."

The agent looked up at the voice, smiling to the older woman holding onto her son's hand to help her back down the mountain. "Thank you," she smiled, hearing Phoenix speaking to the butterflies that came up from the side of the mountain. "How's the weather up there?" Emily asked, nodding up to the mountain's path.

The bundled up woman shook her head. "Very chilly. Good thing your little one has a scarf."

"We'll be careful," she assured the woman with a smile, waiting until she disappeared before looking back down to the girl she held. "Wasn't she nice?"

"Mommy," the brunette girl whined, taking Emily by the material of her windbreaker and doing her best to shake her with all twenty pounds she had.

Emily smirked, walking up the path with her eyes on the little girl. "I'm going to find you a flower, baby. Ok? I promise."

Phoenix's lips gently pouted as she tried to repeat the complex word.

"I promise," she repeated, smiling to her daughter.

With her eyes downcast and her hands once again set to the back of her daughter's carrier strapped to her chest, the FBI agent missed the eroded edge of the path she was coming up on. She stepped forward expecting the same graveled pathway she had been following for over an hour, but instead her foot missed the edge and fell, her body following and tripping over the edge.


	2. Chapter 2

Her foot hit the side of the mountain with a hard crack, her body falling past it and her ankle snapping. She could do nothing but wrap her arms around the baby strapped to her chest, protecting her from the rocks and branches they were crashing into as they went tumbling down the side of the mountain.

"Mommy!" Phoenix's cry came, the mother's greatest pain. She was basically a pinball being smacked around by the rocks and sharp edges of the mountain, her foot that felt broken rolling underneath her body, but the part that hurt the most was the scared screaming from her baby girl.

Gritting her teeth, she did her best to turn her body enough and stick out her good foot to run against the grain and slow her fall. Eyes shooting open, the brunette let one hand go of the little girl and reach out to grab a rock big enough.

The one year old cried into her mother's chest, feeling their movements finally stop and both her mother's hands abandon her back.

"It's ok," Emily rushed out, turning over so she was on her stomach and Phoenix's carrier against the ground. She hooked both her hands around the rock she caught onto and pulled their bodies up the steep side of the mountain, her good foot pushing against the soft ground to help their bodies back up. "Hang onto mommy, baby." When she was close enough, the FBI agent wrapped her arm around the rock and got herself sitting on top of it, immediately checking her daughter for any injuries.

Trying to level herself on the rock, her ankle was brought to her attention for the first time. It hit against the cold stone and a shot of pain coursed through her leg. Emily looked down, eyes stinging, and noticed her foot turning inward, the bone sticking out of place just enough for the single mother to know it was close to poking through her skin.

Phoenix's little tears spilled down her cheeks and into the scarf her mother had wrapped around her neck that morning.

"It's ok," she smiled down to her daughter, her arms wrapping around the carrier. "Come on," she smiled, wiping away the tear she felt in the corner of her eye before tickling underneath the little girl's chin, "smile for mommy."

The one year old's features scrunched before she buried her face in her mother's chest.

Huffing, the brunette rolled her shoulders to loosen her muscles before she looked back up to where she had fallen from.

It was at least over a three hundred foot drop.

She made sure the rock she was on sat deep in the ground before she slowly turned her body around and reached out for a thick branch that hung over her head.

"Mommy!"

Emily's eyes drifted down to the scared girl strapped against her chest and she tried for another smile. "It's ok. Mommy's getting us back up to the path. Do you trust mommy?" She watched the beautiful little girl shakily whimper something in agreement before she grasped the branch with both of her hands.

She felt her body lurch forward s she used all her strength to pull them off the rock. Her hands slid against the rough wood, carrying their bodies over the gap between the rock she had used to stop them from falling any further and the dip in the mountainside that could have them speeding straight back down to the river below them.

Using her upper arms, the FBI agent pulled herself closer to the branch to try and secure them the best she could. Her body had never felt heavier, her daughter screaming bloody murder still ringing in her ears from their fall.

Phoenix did her best to crane her little neck and see just what her mother was bringing them to. Looking down, the little girl whimpered, seeing how far they were from the ground.

The brunette grit her teeth, feeling the splinters of the thick wood digging into her hands. "It's ok," she grunted, noticing they were crowing closer to the solid side of the mountain. "Keep your eyes on mommy."

She felt the branch begin to wobble and quickly Emily climbed to the root of the limb, swinging them to the ground and sitting them down on the steep incline. She pressed a desperate kiss to her daughter's head, hugging the little girl now struggling to get out of her carrier.

Phoenix cried, yanking at her mother's windbreaker and kicking her legs.

"I can't let you out, baby." Emily smoothed down her daughter's hair, her eyes stinging with a new round of tears as she looked up to see the already darkening sky. She looked behind her, not able to see the path they'd fallen from.

"Mommy?" Phoenix could see the worry on her mother's face.

Emily peppered a row of kisses along the crown of her daughter's head, reaching out to grab her beanie that had gotten caught on a branch. She took in a sharp breath before turning back around, digging her fingers into the dirt to make sure they wouldn't slip. She got on her knees, crawling her way back up the mountain to a spot where they could at least sit on level ground and she could check her cell service to call for help.

The brown eyed baby gripped hard at the jacket her mother wore, scared her little head would hit the ground.

The FBI agent sent a quick smile to the little girl as she slowly made her way back up toward the path, knowing how scared her daughter was. "We're getting back," she nodded, looking back up to the high peak above her and being careful not to knock around her ankle as she crawled. "I promise."


	3. Chapter 3

Every time she let her fingers slip themselves under the soft ground to climb back up the side of the mountain, her body slipped a little more back down the few feet she had climbed up. It had to be over an hour now of the agent murmuring softly to her daughter, her one foot leveling herself against the ground and one lying dead so she couldn't break the bone any further.

The sky had officially blackened, and Emily had the worst trouble seeing where she was putting her hands and how close she was coming to the path.

After another few painful minutes, her eyes had adjusted enough for the FBI agent to see a few rocks embedded into the ground a few feet above her. Climbing carefully, she let her left hand hook onto the edge of the first rock and pulled herself up.

Phoenix's small eyes opened, coughing as the cold air immediately invaded her lungs.

"It's ok," Emily smiled, laughing quietly to herself as she got herself and her daughter up onto the flat rock. "Look at that," she cooed, kissing Phoenix's head, "mommy got us closer to the path."

Turning her head to take a look at the small indentation in the side of the mountain she had gotten them to, noticing it looked almost like a cave. It probably only went back three feet, but it was good enough for them to lie down in until Emily got a good portion of her strength back.

"Mommy?"

Emily scooted herself back into the impression of the rock and turned her back to the night sky, finally letting her daughter out of the carrier she had been in all day. "You do not try and walk, do you hear me?" Phoenix had just successfully walked around the house without her mother's help for the first time - her left leg had been broken due to a car crash when she was only four months old - and Emily noticed it was her daughter's new favorite activity. "You stay right here."

The one year old teared up, barely able to see her mother's face in the darkness.

"Are you hungry?" The single woman took her backpack and set it to her left, barricading her daughter into the back of the small cave so she couldn't try and get around. "Mommy packed some of your favorites." She pulled out a few crackers she had packed and handed one to her daughter. "Chew it all the way, Nikki." She watched her daughter quickly take a bite out of the whole wheat cracker, and she smoothed her dark hair back. "Now one for mommy," she whispered to herself, filling her empty stomach with a cracker for herself.

She handed another to her daughter before putting the little bag away and reaching into the front pouch of her backpack for her cell phone. As she was climbing her way back up the mountain the device hadn't rung once, so either it had died or no service was available. Only one of those she was able to fix, thanks to the portable charger she had gotten a month ago.

She pressed the home button and watched as the home screen lit up. Her heart immediately fell into her stomach, noticing that there were no bars where they were supposed to be. She couldn't even call the police or park rangers for help.

"Mommy?" Phoenix noticed her mother's sad eyes and reached forward to touch her.

Emily was quick to take her daughter's hand, holding it in hers so Phoenix didn't reach forward and touch her injured ankle. "Don't worry, mommy's ok. Are you thirsty?" Letting go of her daughter's hand and putting her phone back into her backpack before taking out the sippy cup filled with apple juice. "Here you go, baby."

Watching as the little girl sipped greedily at the juice, Emily felt her eyes sting with tears. She knew she was going to get back up to the path, there was no doubt, but how long that took and how many more injuries she would have by the end of their journey Emily didn't know.

The FBI agent took the sippy cup from her daughter, making sure there would still be enough for the next day, and put everything back into her backpack. She could feel herself shivering, the wind from the water all the way below them reaching up and biting at her skin through her jacket. Taking off her beanie, the brunette woman adjusted it onto her daughter's head to cover her ears. "How cute are you?" she smiled despite their situation.

Phoenix's eyes started drooping, and her mother was quick to take out the extra jacket from her backpack and set it up so her daughter could lie down. "Go to sleep, baby." Emily pressed a kiss to her head before she took the gloves from the front pocket of her bag, thankful the material hadn't ripped during their fall, and tied the ends of the warm material together.

Biting down hard into her lip, Emily wrapped the gloves around her ankle and tied them tight around the injured bone.

Luckily for her she'd had a lot of pain in her lifetime, and all her most likely broken ankle brought her were a few tears that gathered at the inner corners of her eyes.

She let out a breath and quickly wiped the tears away before lying herself down. Wrapping her arms around her daughter, Emily knew she needed to sleep but couldn't let her body relax. There were only about two feet left of rock behind her left, and so she moved the backpack and cemented it down with two heavy rocks. If she rolled back into the bag, there was no doubt the two of them were back to rolling down that mountain.

Emily could feel her daughter fuss lightly against her chest, and immediately her lips went to the one year old's ear. "Hush little baby," she started, singing softly to the little girl until her body stilled against hers.

Her chest ached, the brunette woman knowing that they could very well freeze in the small enclosure she'd found. She was hopeful that they'd make it back to the path, but she knew the odds were against them.

They had missed the family dinner, so someone had to be looking for them. Right?


	4. Chapter 4

Emily's eyes peeled open, feeling the cold of the night seeping into her skin. She had wrapped her windbreaker around her and her daughter before trying to get at least a few minutes of sleep, and her skin had almost turned blue.

Turning her head she could see the sky brightening slowly, signaling to her that the sun was finally coming back up. "Nikki?" She kissed softly to her daughter's temple before shaking her awake. "Come on baby, wake up."

Phoenix made a sound of discontent, squirming herself awake.

Emily fixed the hat on her daughter's head before sitting up, helping Phoenix sit herself up. "Did you make a stinky?" She hadn't changed her daughter's diaper before they had gone to bed, knowing there were only a few clean ones they had left. She laid the girl back down and quickly cleaned her up, slipping on a fresh diaper. She grimaced and set the dirty diaper down on the rock. She couldn't carry that back with her. "Sorry nature," she grumbled, pulling Phoenix's pants back up before helping her stand.

The one year old clenched her hands a few times, signaling to her mother wanted something to eat.

The FBI agent held in her sigh as she handed two more crackers to her little girl, watching as she chomped down and washed it back with a sip of her apple juice. Hopefully her smile would last throughout the rest of their journey back up to the path they'd tumbled from. "You ready, baby?" She helped her daughter back into her carrier and packed everything back into the backpack before strapping both back onto her.

"Smile for mommy," she grinned, tickling underneath Phoenix's chin. "You ready?"

Biting her lip to keep herself from cursing at the pain in her ankle, Emily reached around the small cave she and Phoenix had burrowed themselves into and grabbed onto a rock to pull herself out.

A grunt left her without her knowledge, her body hitting the rest of the rock cave with full force as she tried to help herself up the mountain. "We're ok," she nodded, looking down to make sure Phoenix was ok. She wasn't crying, her head seemingly protected by Emily's beanie she wore, as the little girl distracted herself by playing with the zipper on her mother's jacket.

Pulling herself up, Emily forced herself not to groan at the pressure being put on her ankle as she climbed up the rock and hardened mud. "How's my baby doing today?" she asked the one year old strapped to her chest. The best thing she could do as she made her way back to the top of the mountain was to keep her daughter as calm as possible. "How's my Nikki?"

Phoenix giggled lightly, chewing on her fingers.

The FBI agent shoved her fingers into the dirt, moving slowly and carefully to make sure they didn't slip. "Are you as excited as mommy to get back to the path? Huh?" She grit her teeth, pushing up against the dirt that was growing from hardened and rocky to crumbling underneath her good foot. "Maybe Uncle Dave saved us some of his famous spaghetti."

The big brown eyes of the one year old looked up to her mother. Uncle Dave's spaghetti was her favorite. "Petti?"

Emily grinned at the word. "His famous spaghetti," she agreed, nodding as she hauled them up to a semi flat landing. The single mother helped herself onto her knees, running her hand calmly down Phoenix's back as she adjusted the backpack she wore. "I bet Jack and Henry are waiting to see you, too." After having her daughter, the two BAU boys had immediately fallen in love with her. Every chance they got, they were playing with Phoenix; they taught her how to build Lego structures, how to make the sound of a car when playing with those toy cars their uncles had gotten them, and they had tried to help her walk by the age of three months old.

"Miss mommy."

The brunette took in a deep breath before standing, and she started back onto the path she was making for herself. "I miss them too, baby," she sighed, using her knee instead of her broken ankle to help her up the mountain. "But we're going to see them really soon."

Phoenix turned her head, the hem of the beanie she wore slowly sliding down over her eyes as she tried to see where they were headed.

Emily froze, feeling her foot sliding from the dirt she had wedged it into.

"Mama?"

The brunette whispered gently down to her daughter as she fought her way up the mountain, hurrying to get to the next ledge before they went tumbling back down toward the freezing river below.

Her finally growing fingernails were digging so hard into the dirt, they were tearing, small rocks and soil fight their way into her now bloodied tips. But she kept climbing. With every step she tried to take back up the mountainside, she could feel her body slipping back down toward the bottom.

"Mommy?" Phoenix's breathing grew rapid, her small lips pouting as she looked up to her mother's scared eyes. "Mommy!"

Emily practically threw herself up to the small ledge she saw a few feet above her, being as careful as she could to keep her daughter from hitting the hard wall the mountain had made for itself. Her hands almost slipped from the unstable ledge, and the agent quickly lifted her leg over the edge to pull the rest of her body off of the steep incline.

Bringing up her injured leg, Emily barely got her knee above the ledge before she felt her skin tear and leg sting.

"Mommy," the brunette baby babbled, noticing the unfamiliar look on her mother's face.

Emily couldn't hold back her tears as she scrambled back and took her leg in her hand. Her pants had torn on a rock, a broken piece of wood she had passed along the way she didn't know, and from her knee to the middle of her shin her skin had split straight open.

Phoenix's long lashes batted as she looked up, watching as tears filled her mother's eyes.

"Mommy's ok," she rushed out, taking the sweater that had been wrapped around her waist and tying it tightly over the wound.

A loud chopping had Emily's head snap up. A helicopter.

"Help!" She grimaced as she tried her best to stand, balancing herself on a nearby rock as she tried to wave up to the emergency copter. "Help! Please!" The tears that finally fell from her eyes were breezed away by the violent bursts of wind, her head falling and chin dropping to her daughter's head as the helicopter passed them by.


	5. Chapter 5

The blood from her fingernails mixed with the dirt as she continued her climb, her leg almost completely immobile unless she found it impossible to move without pushing the broken bones against the hard mountainside. She could feel the sweat pouring down her neck even though she was freezing cold, her limbs shaking from the freezing winds that threatened to knock her off her path.

Hours earlier, her daughter had finished off the last of their food and water, Emily no longer able to deny her crying baby girl the food she had been begging for. Now when she heard her daughter asking for another bite of a cracker, the FBI agent had to do her best to veer off into another subject, not able to bear the burden of telling her daughter they had nothing left to eat.

She had been climbing for the entire day, the sky already turning from the overcast clouds that had been hovering above her for hours to the dark night sky she was learning to hate. Without the light, she wasn't able to climb as fast as she could nor could she see where her hands were going and grabbing at. If she were to think she was grabbing a rock to help her climb up and it instead was just a pile of hardened dirt, that was a big difference that could send her falling back down toward the river.

At one point hours ago she thought she had heard something, anything, but taking the time to stop and look around her the brunette woman finding no one around had her heart breaking.

Crickets started up just as the sun was setting, something Emily hadn't heard the night before. Did that mean they were getting closer to civilization or was it just a small stream they were closing in on? The woods had always been the ambassador's daughter's second home, but one thing she didn't study up on were facts about the life of a cricket.

Pausing to take a breath, feeling the pain in her thighs and arms from climbing for hours, she could feel bugs starting to crawl around her fingers that had dug themselves into the dirt. "I've dealt with worse than bugs," she breathed, closing her eyes to collect herself before she continued climbing. "I've dealt with worse."

Phoenix's little head lolled back, her big brown eyes finally closed as she got in the most sleep she could, her tiny little lips that puckered when she wanted her sippy cup parted as she slept.

The one year old had cried along with her mother when the helicopter had passed them, feeling the older woman's sadness bleeding through their jackets and into her little heart. She had sobbed harder than she ever had, even when her tiny wrist had broken after her uncle crashed their bike into a car, but seeing her mother so heartbroken had the little girl sick to her stomach with sadness.

Emily glanced down to her sleeping little girl, wishing she could run a hand over those hairs on her head as she reached up to grab a rock to hoist her up.

She didn't understand how people could do it, how she could do it for years. How could people hold their emotions back? After having her daughter, Emily wasn't able to put those bad memories back into those stuffy little boxes she'd had for so long.

When Phoenix was born, Emily was in tears. When the little girl she loved had to go to the doctor at two weeks old for an ear infection, Emily was in tears. When her baby finally took her first steps, Emily was in tears.

How she was able for so long to not let any emotions phase her at the wrong times she didn't know, but she'd have to relearn if they were getting back up to that path.

Blowing out a breath as a cramp started pinching at her side, Emily pulled herself and her daughter up onto the next ledge they came upon. She could hear her stomach rumbling but quickly put that aside, reaching back and taking her phone from her backpack once more to check service.

One bar.

A gasp escaped the scared woman, seeing how low her battery was. Quickly, the brunette woman pulled up her contact list and dialed her friend.

"Come on," she whispered, hearing the delayed ringing in her ear. "Pick up. Please pick up."

One ring.

Two rings.

"Emily?"

She couldn't hold back her tears at the worried voice on the other end. "Hotch," she cried, her voice strained as she tried not to take her daughter.

"Emily where are you? You didn't answer any of our calls."

"I was hiking with Nikki." She shook her head, still in awe of how stupid she could have been to not watch where she was going. "We fell off the path and started rolling down the side of the mountain."

She could hear his teeth clenching from the other end. "Tell me you're ok."

Emily looked down to her leg. "Minor injuries," she rushed out. "I need you to get us out of here. We're out of food and if we have to stay here throughout the night again, Nikki might freeze."

"We sent a helicopter. You didn't see it?"

"It didn't see me," she countered, looking out to see if the chopper was around again. "I guess with all the mud we fell through, we kind of blended in." Wiping away her tears, she looked down to her daughter who was slowly waking in her arms. "I need you to send it again. We've climbed higher on the mountain, but I still don't know how far I am from the path."

The Unit Chief was quick to use his other cell phone to contact Rossi. "We're coming for you, ok? Stay exactly where you are."

Emily couldn't do anything but nod when her signal cut off. Pulling the phone from her ear, the crying woman could see that her phone had died.

Now all she had to do was wait.


	6. Chapter 6

The chills she had from the cold were shaking her body so badly Emily was sure the little girl strapped to her chest was going to get motion sickness. Listening to her boss' words, she stayed right where she was so the chopper would find her, but the lack of motion wasn't helping with warming them up.

"Mama?"

Emily bent her head and pressed a kiss to her daughter's cold skin. "You tired, baby?" Trying to see through the darkness, the agent's eyes slowly started to unfocus. "Mommy's tired."

Phoenix's eyes drooped, her small hands gripping the zipper of her mother's jacket.

"How about we try to sing a song to stay awake?" she asked her baby, blinking heavily. She could tell it was getting harder for her to breathe, her breath growing shallow. "What's your favorite song, Nikki?"

The one year old licked her tiny chapped lips and shook her head.

Leaning her head back against the crumbling dirt wall behind her and a few rocks rolling down the back of her jacket. "What if we make up our own song?" She gently cleared her throat, the energy she used to do only that wearing her out. "Let me rock you to sleep," she whispered, singing the best she could. "Lie gently in my arms. Let me rock you to sleep, and dream your sweet dreams."

Emily opened her eyes wider to check on her daughter, noticing her tiny head starting to drop forward. She pressed a finger to her neck to check for a pulse, thanking God when she felt it under the pad of her pointer.

Her ears perked, thinking she had heard something close to the sound she had first heard before noticing the helicopter, but only saw a lizard digging its way into the dirt.

The stars had been breathtakingly bright as they appeared in the sky above her hours ago, the moon fighting against them to gain Emily's attention. But after hours of bearing down on her, the agent wished she could wave her hand and make them disappear. At this point they were only taunting her, forcing her to rely on them for sight instead of a flashlight or a lamp. She wasn't even able to reach out and grab one, pull it down and use it to start a fire to keep them warm.

Nothing was going right for them.

Hissing, Emily flicked a mouse from her injured leg. They were close to the path, but how close? She hadn't heard anything from above except a hawk who had threatened to take little Phoenix as its dinner.

She knew the helicopter was coming, it had probably been searching for hours now, but what if it never saw them? She knew now she wouldn't be able to climb the rest of the way back up to the path they had fallen from, so what would they do?

"Mommy?" The one year old's voice grew softer as she whispered, on the brink of sleep.

Emily's eyes filled with tears. "Stay awake for mommy, baby." The temperature had dropped at least ten degrees lower than what it had been the night before, and she was surprised they had even made it through that. "Can you look at me, baby? Come on, Nikki."

Phoenix's head nodded at the sound of her mother's voice.

"How about we talk about your friends in daycare?" She knew how much fun her daughter had there. "I bet Hanna and David can't wait to get their best friend back," the brunette whispered with a smile.

The one year old snuggling against Emily's chest laid her head down.

Emily moved her hand to cup her daughter's chin, almost forcing her to stay awake and have those little brown eyes look up to her.

"Mama," she whined, fighting the hold her mother had on her.

"Mama needs to keep you safe," Emily whispered fiercely, letting her daughter press her lips to her thumb. "You've got tot stay awake for me, ok? Ok?"

Phoenix's small hands came up and pushed her mother's away.

Blinking back her tears, the brunette woman watched as her daughter tried to fight off the sleep that threatened to take her. "How do you think dinner at Uncle Dave's was?" she asked, doing her best to look happy for her daughter. She knew that her family had worried the entire time, every one of them trying to get in touch with her and figure out where she had last been seen. "I bet Jack and Henry had that famous spaghetti and loved every bite."

"Petti," the child whispered, her eyes closed.

Emily smiled at her daughter's lips puckering at the thought of her favorite food. "Uncle Dave probably saved a whole lot for you. He knows you love his spaghetti," she whispered to the little girl she held. "And I know Jack is going to want to play with you for hours after we get back home." _If_ they got back home.

Rocking lightly in her carrier, Phoenix's head lolled back.

The brunette woman sniffled, bringing up her good leg to help prop up her little girl. "We're going to be ok," she whispered tearfully, her hand helping support her daughter's head when it refused to sit up for itself. "Stay with me, sweetheart."

She could feel her daughter getting colder as the hours ticked by, Emily's tears freezing to her cheeks.

Her body covering Phoenix's and her head bent, it took the single mother a moment to recognize the sound that buzzed in her ear. Slowly lifting her head, a search light immediately filled her vision. "Help!" The brunette raised her hand in the air to signal to them, hoping they would finally see her this time. "We're over here!"

Emily pressed long kisses against her baby girl's head, her small body still in her hold. "Wake up for mommy, baby," she whispered, her tears falling against Phoenix's skin as the helicopter dropped its ladder for them. "Nikki?"


	7. Chapter 7

Her head ached as the helicopter ascended to the top of the mountain. Looking out to the sun rising over the river she had been afraid of for the past two days, even though warm Emily felt herself shiver. What if they had fallen into the cold water? What if she hadn't been able to save her daughter as the current took her?

She heard the pilot speak into his headset but didn't move her eyes from the window to look. Her daughter was cold and still against her, and all Emily could do was pull the beanie down over her ears to help warm her up.

They were finally going home.

Leaning back into the uncomfortable seat they sat in, Emily could feel her tears she'd done her best to keep in finally spill over.

"Agent Prentiss? We're almost there."

The brunette barely acknowledged the older man with a nod of the head, her hands moving from the back of her daughter's carrier to her cheeks to try and let the small amount of heat her body held bleed through her skin and into Phoenix's.

The medic beside them rolled up his stethoscope and set it away in his bag. "I'm so sorry," he spoke quietly, his eyes flickering from the little girl whose eyes refused to open, and her mother who couldn't be bothered.

Emily felt the bridge of her nose sting as her tears continued to flow. She couldn't talk, could barely breathe, and if they thought she'd be able to answer any of their questions they were dead wrong.

A slow breathing took the singe mother out of her trance, those dark eyes shooting down to the little girl she held.

Phoenix's eyes were closed but for the first time in twenty minutes Emily could see her lips quivering slightly and hear those tiny breaths from the little girl.

"Baby?" Emily put a gentle pressure on her daughter's cheeks, her eyes glued to every feature her little face held to try and see if she made a move. "Nikki baby, it's mommy," she whispered, running her thumb over the cold skin of her forehead.

With her tiny chest constricting, Phoenix took in the biggest breath she could, her closed eyes missing the look of relief on her mother's face.

Emily brought her arms underneath her daughter's bottom and lifted the carrier so Phoenix's face was buried in the crook of the FBI agent's neck.

"Mama."

The word was barely a whisper from the one year old, and it made Emily's heart jump.

"I'm so sorry," the medic repeated, watching as the brunette turned to look at him for the first time during their ride. "I'm so sorry we couldn't get to you quicker."

The brown eyed woman slowly shook her head. "You came back," she husked. It was as simple as that. They could have left her and her daughter by themselves, out alone in the wilderness to freeze to death. Because they didn't give up, two lives were saved.

Sunlight streaming into the small window beside her, it made Emily feel something other than fear and sorrow for the first time in two days. She was happy.

The rest of the way up to the path where they had fallen from, the agent could feel her daughter's breath hot against her neck.

"Petti."

Emily let out a watery laugh, snuggling her daughter closer as she watched them ascend above the pathway. "They better have saved us some," she agreed, pressing a long kiss to Phoenix's cheek.

Getting out of their vehicles, the worried BAU agents ran over to where the helicopter had landed, Hotch immediately reaching forward and yanking the door open before she could do it herself. "They were supposed to take you straight to the hospital."

The injured woman sent a scowl to the older man, letting him and the medic behind her help her from the chopper. Over her dead body would she be headed to the hospital.

"Her ankle bone is shattered and her shin bone needs to be reset," the medic informed her team, his voice loud so they could hear him over the noise of the chopper. "She needs to head into surgery as soon as possible."

Emily hid her grimace as she stepped out of the helicopter, her free hand underneath her daughter to make sure she and her carrier were secure.

Hotch was quick to try and lead his teammate to the ambulance he had called when the pilot had warned them his agent had refused to be flown to the hospital.

"Wait."

The leader frowned. "Emily, we have to get you to the ER."

Gesturing over to the ledge where she had fallen, Emily held tighter onto his hand. "Take me over there." She turned her head to look into those dark eyes, and she knew he could see the pain in hers. "Please."

She almost held her breath as he helped her over, her leg now held together in a boot so her bones couldn't move any further apart before they got her to the hospital. Her dark eyes hit the slide in the dirt where her foot had slipped, and slowly she took her hand away from Hotch's.

"Mama," Phoenix whispered.

Emily watched as her daughter's eyes finally fluttered open, just enough for the single mother to see those exhausted brown orbs trying their best to stare back at her. Doing her best to bend at her hips, careful of her leg and her daughter still strapped to her chest, Emily picked a violet from the ground. "A beautiful flower," she whispered, propping it up against her chest because she knew she was too tired to hold it, "for my beautiful baby."


End file.
